Your Guide To What the Major Parties Are Promising the LGBT+ Community

The horserace is officially coming to an end.

All of the major parties have made their pitches, released their manifesto’s and now the power is in our hands. Below is a guide to what each of the major parties have promised the LGBT community in their manifestos:

Labour

In total, there were 11 mentions of the LGBT community in Labour’s manifesto. In a move to protect LGBT youth, Labour has promised to supply support and training to teachers on how to deal with homophobic and transphobic bullying, stating plans to:

“reverse the damage done to mental health services under this Tory government, which is particularly hitting services for LGBT and BAME communities.”

They have also pledged to make HIV preventative Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (or PrEP) available on the NHS. They will bring the law on LGBT hate crimes into line with racial and faith based crimes, by making them aggravated offences.

In protecting transgender rights, Labour pledges to reform the Gender Recognition Act, which will change the protected characteristic of ‘gender assignment’ to ‘gender identity’. They also want to get rid of outdated language such as “transexual”.

The party also want to tackle youth homelessness by reinstating housing benefit for under-21s. According to a study by the Albert Kennedy Trust, nearly 25% of homless youth are LGBT. If this hasn’t convinced you, a rainbow appeared during Corbyn’s rally speech in Birmingham, proving that even mother nature herself loves Jezza.

Theresa, your manifesto…is a manifest-no. I’m sorry my dear, but you are gonna have to step your game up.

Theresa May once ran in fields of wheat. I don’t like this display of ‘naughtiness’, but in terms of her support for the LGBT community, I’d rather she was doing that than running for Prime Minister.

Liberal Democrats

Whilst reports on Tim Farrow’s stance on equality have been, er, sketchy at best, the Lib Dem leader did speak to PinkNews about why he chose to remain quiet about his LGBT views:

“I am a proud advocate of LGBT equality and have a track record that demonstrates that. Initially I chose not to speak out on my views on gay sex as I really didn’t think anyone would want the General Election campaign to turn into a theological debate.”

Liberal Democrats in general have a strong track record for LGBT rights, with five mentions in their manifesto. Farrow has promised to review sex education in schools to include lessons on LGBT relations, sexual consent and same-sex explicit content.

For healthcare, the Lib Dem’s have promised to make PrEP available on the NHS, and to ensure that “LGBT+ inclusive mental health services receive funding and support”.

In a big move for equality, the Lib Dem’s also want companies larger than 250 employees to publish employment data on their LGBT workforce and pay gap. Finally, the yellow party pledge to introduce legislation that will allow for LGBT + parliamentary shortlists.

UKIP had one mention in it’s manifesto, whilst the Green party wrote an entirely separate manifesto for the LGBT + community.

The SNP will support efforts to ensure PrEP becomes available on NHS to any who needs it in the UK, and promote our rights throughout the world.

We’re not here to tell you how to vote, but to simply help inform you on how the election could affect your rights.

Each of the parties have stated their case, you’ve consulted the manifesto’s, but the final decision is yours to make. Whichever colour of the rainbow you decide to vote for this election, please keep our beautiful LGBT community proudly and firmly in your minds.